Pulitzer-winning poet to read in Leatherby

She’s a self-described science groupie, loves 19
^th
Century fiction, keeps a little journal close at hand for her “magpie” habit of collecting thoughts and was excited to have lunch recently with “a real, actual physicist.” And she admits to slipping cartoon characters into her poetry when her son was young and she was, well, watching a lot of cartoons.

“I really write about what I’m thinking about,”
Rae Armantrout
, the 2010 winner of the
Pulitzer Prize
for poetry, told a Chapman University audience this afternoon. Armantrout opened
Tabula Poetica’s
Poetry Reading Series with a poetry talk discussing the style of New Precisionist poets, her own writing, creative process and what it means to be a Southern Californian poet.

“There’s a kind of natural irony that comes from being a Southern Californian,” she told a full room of students and fans that filled Argyros Forum to hear her afternoon talk and participate in an informal Q&A session with the acclaimed poet.

And there’s still time to hear her again today. Armantrout’s formal reading will be at 5 p.m. in the Henley Room of
Leatherby Libraries
. President Jim Doti will introduce Armantrout, who won the Pulitzer for
Versed
, (Wesleyan, 2009). Her work has long been admired and included in numerous anthologies. This is a must-see event.